A walk in the spring sunshine

It was such a beautiful spring day today that after spending the morning gardening, I just couldn't resist a good walk in the sunshine, so I got my husband to drop me off a couple of miles up the hill (I just couldn't face that steep hill in my current state of unfitness!)

The start of my walk.


This old farmhouse has fabulous views up along the valley.


The first celendines are just appearing.


View along the valley, looking south.



The bracken is gradually capturing this hill slope and ruining the grazing.


I don't know how long this land has been abandoned - possibly as late as the 1970s when old farmhouses and cottages were routinely condemned for being without "facilities" - but surely in the Second World War, every inch of this land would have been encouraged to produce as much as possible for the War Effort.


The sky above was such an intense celestial blue.


I prefer to walk this route this way round, with the lane winding ever DOWNwards!


I have photographed this particular tree before - the spring sunlight catches the green moss on the branches and trunk as if it has been spray-painted.


The view south along the Cothi Valley.


Snowdrops are still blooming happily. I can't help wondering how many decades ago they were first planted?

Across the valley, an old farmstead in the shade of the valley bottom lies abandoned and the incoming family have chosen to live higher up the valley side in the sunlight. Who can blame them?

A sunny bank and a long-untended stone wall.

This gateway over the stream at Cwm Heligan always amuses me. I always wanted to explore the trackways on the opposite side.

One arm of the stream above swoops downhill and then splits and loops around both sides of a cottages lawns.


Some of a neighbour's ewes with a pair of few-days-old twins.


I thought there would be more Primroses out, but this one cheered me up anyway.


In the shelter of the hedgerow, both Lords and Ladies (above) and the wild Garlic (Ramsons) were growing.